Bad plasterer

[guitardedleon]

Had somebody plaster a ceiling for me.

Wish I never bothered as its worse now than it was!

Had some fairly expensive down lights installed beforehand to tart the room up a bit.

they are IP64 so are sealed units with the rubber ring and screw in faceplate.

the plasterer ( I use that term very lightly ) plastered them into the ceiling rather than bringing them down first!! ( apart from one which is partially hanging out of the ceiling but was fine before he came along. )

He has 100% ruined the lights and the plastering is abysmal, rough as rough can be!
think pebbledash!

the electrician is furious.

anyway, here's some pics:

Im giving them the chance to make good at their expense and for them to bare the costs in sorting the lights, if they refuse/fail I will be forced to a small claims unfortunately.

down4.jpg (42.2 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

down3.jpg (94.23 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

down2.jpg (59.97 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

downlight1.jpg (56 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

[fin]

i find it hard to understand how anyone with an ounce of common sense can do a job as bad as that. its surely harder to do it as bad as that?? im not a plasterer. im a joiner. but i can plaster as and when i need to. ive done full rooms before. thats like canny shockin

[thescruff]

Anytime Iv'e seen or had plasterers in the fittings have been removed and made safe.

Looks like self inflicted to me, absolutely crazy expecting a plaster to do a job like that after the second fix, around here I think they would walk.

Dangerous as hell.

[guitardedleon]

exactly fin.

I am gutted to be honest.

I can tape and fill all day long and get flawless joints, never tried plastering, but would love to be able to.

the lights were a couple hundred quid alone
so to have some chump ruin them and the ceiling in one hit is annoying.

had the plasterer back just now, he wants to:

1. mist coat it.
2. aimes it
3. use his own leccy to replace lights.

I am not at all comfortable about this.

personally what I would rather is:

him to cover/reimburse costs to overboard ceiling and skim
( using the plasterer that my electrician uses )

also to cover the replacement fittings.

Id say £350

£150 on ceiling
£200 on light fittings and labour with any applicable certificates/testing.


im just unsure on what im legally required to do, before going to court
because frankly if he can screw it up so badly first go In my opinion filling that will do nothing.
so why waste everybody's time?

scruff the lights were left able to be dropped down and covered.
unreasonable to expect a plasterer to take 2mins to cover them
to NOT to it is unreasonable

[thescruff]

Disagree, the lights and other fittings should have been remover and the job made safe.

Plasterer isnt qualified to remove them and anyone in their right mind wouldn't expect him too. saying that he should have demanded they are removed before he started.

Just imagine chucking water around with live cables and fittings sticking out. plastering isn't exactly a dry or clean job.

[guitardedleon]

Ive not once heard of a plasterer complain about holes pre drilled wires in position.

I take your point though, and if he had asked for the wires to be terminated and taped up in the ceiling
I would have obliged.

thus saving him and myself a lot of money and time

ETA:

the room is empty, only the wbp ply floor are bare walls remained when the plasterer came in.

[thescruff]

Holes/carcase is fine, live cables when your in a wet trade is not.

Plasterers fault for even starting the job in my opinion, Your fault for not thinking HSE.

[guitardedleon]

to be fair though, even had the lights been removed, this ceiling would still be horrendous.

I have no confidence in him and if its the proper way forward given the situation would prefer money back and to have it done from scratch.

[thescruff]

The ceiling doesn't look that bad other than around the fittings, perhaps another pic or two.

[wine~o]

If I could plaster to any sort of decent standard, I'd have made damn sure that the customer knew that the fittings needed removing/making safe before I started....

I assume the plasterer saw the job and quoted/estimated ??

[guitardedleon]

Yeah wineo

He was more than aware of them.

I was not aware of some plasterers preference of plastering before lights are installed as every time I've seen or had it done they have dropped and covered them.

But again. Had he mentioned it I would have had them removed while he plastered.

I've spoken to the plasterer that the leccy uses
And he's fine to come sort it. So we should be fine now.

I'll just have to take the hit on this one.

[wine~o]

Just remember if you are thinking of taking the original plasterer to the small claims court, then you must give him the chance to put his work right...If not then the court will likely not find in your favour...

[Someone-Else]

I have to agree with the others. The bloke is a plasterer, (so he says) NOT an electrician, I would say it is your fault for leaving them there, it may be the plaster is bad around the lights because the lights were in the way.

Have you ever seen a job after the painters have been in, if its fixed to a wall and the wall has to be painted it will be and so will everything else on the wall, even if its not meant to be painted, it will be.

Same thing with your plasterer, its in the ceiling it gets plastered.

Mind you, look on the bright side.

Get him to come round on friday and "do the wall" You stand in front of it and you save a fortune on drinks, since you will now be plastered.

[steviejoiner74]

If you can Ames tape and get it perfect why did you not do that yourself??
I wouldn't get the plasterer back tbh,get a decent spread in to do it properly.
How much did the guy charge out of curiosity?

[cotswold builders]

To be honest, it is a mess.
When we do ceilings, new or overboard, the spark fits all cables etc, measures where the drops are, then we board, plaster over.
Spark comes back with dedicated hole saw, marks the drops then cut the holes.
In your case, the lights would have been better disconnected and cables pushed up into the void.

Nether the less, the plastering isn't special, but by law you should give him the chance to put it right, only if he refuses then use others, but you cant claim compo of him.